Researcher

I would like to examine bullying. These girls bully Ann in the beginning because she isn't considered pretty and she is on scholarship. In the beginning, Felicity makes it look like Ann stole her ring that her father gave her. She slowly begins to bond with the other girls.

Discussion Director

pages 231 - 403

1. Do you think it is weird for Gemma to be able to see her mother in the realms? What do you think about the warnings from Circe? Do you think that visiting her mother with Sally Carny is a mistake?

2. Do you think that Kartik and Gemma will continue to have a relationship even through Gemma in continuously visiting the realms?

3. Now that Gemma has learned that Sarah didn't die in the fire all those years ago and knows that she is Circe, what do you think will happen?

4. Now that the girls are starting to take the magic of the realms back to the real world, what do you think will happen? Why do you think Gemma took the magic even though her mother warned her that she wasn't ready? What do you think will happen next?

5. Do you think that Kartik will continue to watch over Gemma?

6. Why do you think that Pippa is marrying Mr. Bumble, even through she knows she will be unhappy and her true love lies within the realms?

7. Now that Circe has entered the realms, and Pippa was left behind, what do you think will happen? Do you think that Felicity is bing corrupted by the realms? Do you think Gemma will be able to fight off Circe?

8. What do you think will happen now that Gemma has discovered that Mary Dowd is really her mother?

9. Did you think Gemma would be able to fight off Circe? Now that she has, do you think she will be able to do it again?

10. Do you think it was a good decision for Pippa to stay behind in the realms and not go back?

11. What do you think will happen now that Gemma has left? Do you think she will run into Kartik again? How do you think the story will continue?

Researcher

Some elements of the occult are covered in this book. The word occult means "knowledge of the paranormal". While these girls may have a knowledge of relams and sprits, they are not practicing anything surrounding the occult. Many religons argue that the occult is purely supernatural and has nothing to do with a higher power. In this book, the occult is highly frowned upon and look at as evil.

Discussion Director

pages 161 - 230

1. Why do you think Pippa's parents are trying to force her to get married? Do you think it is normal for a girl to get married at such a young age? How do you think the way people meet and get married are different now, than they were during the Victorian age?

2. What do you think of Mary and Sarah 's relationship? Now that Sarah is loosing her powers and is asking Mary for help, what do you think will happen? What could Mary do to actually help Sarah in this situation? Why do you think Sarah wants to keep her powers so badly?

3. Do you think Sarah should trust what Mary is saying, even though she already broke the rules and visited the dark spirit and plans to go against every good they know? What could you say about the difference between Mary and Sarah's values/morals?

4. In the story, Anne cuts herself. What similarities and differences to modern times do you see in the pressures of society, that lead to Anne's masochistic behavior?

5. Why do you think Felicity is so persistent in trying to visit the realms?

6. Do you think Gemmas vision caused Pippa's to have an episode of her epilepsy? What do you think will happen to her? Do you think she will be okay? Do you think Gemma feels guilty?

7. Now that Gemma has learned that the year of the fire, was when Mary and Sarah attended the school how do you think that will affect the rest of the story?

8. Now that the girls keep visiting the realms, what do you think will happen?

Discussion Director

pages 141 - 160

1.Do you think it is a bad idea for Gemma to be sharing the diary with the others?

2. Since Gemma isn't telling them the whole truth about the book, do you think her lies will catch up with her? In general do you feel that lies tend to catch up with people?

3. What did you thik about the "oath" the girls made to each other in the cave? Do you think all the happiness they share will last?

4. Do you think the girls will get caught? Do you think that they will continue to sneak out at night even if they do get caught?

5. Do you think Felicity is a true friend to Gemma? Why do you think she passed the note to Gemma, even though it would clearly hurt her feelings?

Discussion Director

pages 121 - 140

1.Do you think the Rakshana are dangerous? Do you think Gemma should really be worried about her visions? Do you think Kartik will end up being more of a friend or an enemy?
2. Do you think Miss Moore will help Gemma in understanding more about the Order?
3. Do you think it is a good or bad idea for the girls to sneak out at night? What do you think will happen in the cave?
4. Do you think the bond the girls are forming will last or fade? DO you think they will really accept Anne into the group?
5. At this point do you think Gemma will ever tell the others about her powers? If so, how do you think they will react? Do you think telling the others would be a good decision, or a bad one?

Word Watcher

Boisterious: boi-ster-uhs, -struhs

noisily jolly or rowdy; clamorous; unrestrained:

Ithal steps closer, toys with the cape's ribbon at the hollow of Felicity's throat. His voice is boisterous, laughing, but the smile doesn't travel to the eyes. They are wounded and angry. "I'm not on that side of the wall tonight."

Page 208, Chapter Eighteen

1. In this situation, would this boisterous laughter and smile make you scared or nervous? explain.

"I knew you could not stay away," Ithal says teasingly to Felicity.

"You knew nothing of the sort. As I recall, I left you standing on the other side of the wall the other day. Thats where you'll always belong- on the other side of things."She's mocking him. It doesn't seem a wise course, but I've never found my self surrounded by virile Gypsy men in the middle of the night woods before. I'm in no position to advise or argue. I can only hold my breath and wait.

Ithal steps closer, toys with the cape's ribbon at the hollow of Felicity's throat. His voice is boisterous, laughing, but the smile doesn't travel to the eyes. They are wounded and angry. "I'm not on that side of the wall tonight."

Page 208, Chapter Eighteen

As this story develops you can see the tone in Ithals voice. Ithal seems to be rude for the fact that the boy is being mocked and no one cares to stand up and say something .

1. Would you stand up for him? Why or Why not?

setting chapter 18 - robin

In the beginning of chapter 18, Gemma is in a realm at a gypsy camp. She describes what she see's and doesn't know what to do next. This is not the first time that she is in a new realm. (I'm not sure if it is a realm because she never specifies if it is so I'm not sure.)

"WE MUST WALK HALF A LEAGUE OVER BRAMBLES THAT scratch and cut our legs to get to the Gypsy camp. The nights are turning colder now. The damp air is raw. It hurts my lungs on the way in and it comes out of my mouth in short whit puffs of white puffs of mist. By the time we reach the edge of the camp, take in the tents and the campfire, and the large, wooden wagons and the men playing boxy violins, my side aches from the effort. There are three large dogs sitting on the ground. How we'll get past them, I don't know." page 206

This is part of a setting in the woods and Gemma doesn't know how to get past the three large stray dogs and the air hurts her lungs, she has been using so much effort to keep moving that her ribs hurt. Things aren't going very well for her.

Discussion Director

pages 81 - 120

1. Do you think Gemma will get caught?

2. Who is Mary Dowd? Do you think she will be an important character?

3. Do you think the diary will really help Gemma understand her powers?

4. What kind of friendship do you think Gemma and Anne have? Do you think their friendship will last throughout the story?

5. Were you surprised to find that there were others who had the "visions" too? Or did you expect it? What made you expect it?

6. What kind of relationship do you think Kartik and Gemma will develop?

Resercher

I'm reserching the limited rights of married women in the Victorian Era. They had the same rights as children. The huband's job was to protect is wife and his wife was supposed to obey him. The wife's income goes directly to the husband and the custody of the children belonged to him as well. The girls in this book are trained to be "ideal" wives in this book at Spence Academy. hey are told to act proper of they ever want a nice husband to take care of them.

setting- the grounds of campus -- robin

In chapter 12 Gemma is walking around the outside grounds of Spence. Gemma is with Ms. Moore her teacher and the rest of her class.

"THE NEXT AFTERNOON IS BLUSTERY AND GRAY, BUT MISS Moore still makes good on her promise to take us to the caves. It's a solid hike through the trees, beyond the boat house and the lake, and along a deep ravine. Ann trips on the slops crumbling wall and nearly trumbles into it.

"Careful" Miss Moore says. "This ravine's a bit tricky. Seems to come out of nowhere and then you're falling and breaking your neck."

We cross the ravine, walking over a small bridge into a spot where the trees open to form a small circular clearing. I catch my breath. I found Mary Dowd's diary. The caves are in front of us, tucked beneath a ledge overgrown with vines that tickle our arms as we thread our way through them into the velvety blackness." page 124

This shows the outside of the boarding school and Gemma really wanted to go see the caves. So her class walked through trees, over a bridge, etc to get to the cave that Miss Moore had told them about.

Discussion Director

pages 41 - 80

1. Emma has just been introduced to her new classmates. Now that she is forced into this new and uncomfortable atmosphere, Emma has to live up to the standards of her classmates. If you were put into Emma's situation, how would you react? Do you think Emma handled the situation well?
2. Who do you think is watching Emma? How do you think the person watching Emma could affect the story?
3. What characteristics do you think make Emma who she is? Which of these characteristics do you think are important qualities for Emma to possess?
4. Where do you think Felicity is bringing Emma? What do you think Felicity will make Emma do?
5. Why do you think Kartik is following Emma? Do you think Kartik will come up again in the book? Do you think Emma was scared when he grabbed her?

Discussion Director

pages 1 - 40

1. Why do you think Emma's mother doesn't want her to go to London?
2. Who was the man that Emma's mother saw in the market? How do you think they know each other?
3. Why do you think Emma's mother told her to go home after the man in the market said, "Circe is near"?
4. Emma's character in the story is very temperamental. Even though the story takes place in the Victorian age, how do you think Emma relates to teenagers today?
5. What do you think the vision Emma has, means?
6. Emma has to deal with the death of her mother, the pressures of attending a new school, living up to societies expectations of being a "lady", and her new/mysterious powers. How do you think Emma will cope with her hectic life, and how do you relate to the problems Emma is facing?

Word Watcher

gingerly: jin-jer-lee

with great care or caution.

Ugh, it's so damp in here," Pippa says, sitting gingerly on the cave floor. Felecity has managed to talk her into coming and all she's done so far is complain about everything. " Did anyone think to bring food? I'm famished"

As the girls sit in the cave, they are cautious of their surroundings. In a situation such as this one I feel as though the girls need to be well aware as to what is occurring. What do you think could happen if they did not pay attention ?

Word Watcher

We sneak out just past midnight,weaving through the woods by lantern light till we're dep inside the dark womb of the caves. Felicity lights candles she's stolen from a cupboard. Within minutes, the place is alight, the drawings dancing again on the rocky walls. In the eerie glow, the skulls of the Morrigan twist and bend like living things till I have to look away.

"Ugh, it's so damp in here," Pippa says, sitting gingerly on the cave floor. Felecity has managed to talk her into coming and all she's done so far is complain about everything. " Did anyone think to bring food? I'm famished"

Her gaze falls on Ann, who has pulled an apple from her cape pocket. It sits in Ann's hand while she debates which will win, her hunger or her need to belong. After an excruciating minute she offers it to Pippa. " You could have my apple."

"I suppose it will have to do," Pippa says with a sigh. She reaches for it, but Felicity grabs it first.

(PAGE 138)

The tone used to describes this seems demanding. Felicity seems to be the ring leader of the group of girls. Although the apple was offered to Pippa, Felicity snatches it out of Ann's hand and does not offer to give it to Pippa. How would you feel if this had happened to you?

Word Watcher

Scintillating : (sin-tl-ey-ting)

witty, clever, animated.

" The chapel is this way" she says, breaking the ice with that bit of scintillating conversation.

" Were not supposed to be later to prayers"

Page 48, Chapter Five.

Put yourself in Gemma's situation, how do you feel being the "new girl" at this boarding school ?

Word Watcher

Bulwark: (bool-werk / wawrk-buhl)

any person or thing giving strong support of encouragement in time of need, danger, or doubt.

"Right. Give the door another good, solid bang to show I'm a good, solid girl, the kind every eerie boarding school would love to claim its own. The heavy oak doors open, revealing a craggy faced, thick wasted bulwark of a house keeper with all the warm of Wales in January.

Page 38, Chapter Four

1. Imagine yourself as Gemma and seeing this bulwark of a housekeeper, how would you react?

Summary

When they return to the real world, Pippa has a seizure because she suffers from epilepsy. Gemma knows she must go back to the realms and find Pippa and bring her back to life. When Gemma gets to the realms, she encounters the creature not Pippa and must battle with it. As soon as Gemma starts to feel defeated, she believes that it is the end for her and she thinks about her mother and forgives her. This act kills the creature and also allows her mother to cross over. Gemma eventually finds Pippa, but Pippa doesn't want to go back because she doesn't want to go back to a society where she has to marry a man she doesn't love and when they look at her all they see is a pretty face. She chooses to remain in the realms and cross over into the spirit world. Gemma returns to Spence and finds out that Pippa has died. Ann, Felicity and Gemma attend Pippa's funeral with Katrik watching from afar. After it was over, Gemma approached Katrik and told him that it has only just begun and she will not give up her powers.

Summary

Gemma confronts her mother and her mother tells her that she was once a member of the Order and she escaped the fire and thought that all the others had died. The only way her mother could ever be at peace is if Gemma forgives her. When Gemma and her friends go back to the realms, they realize that something is not right. Before they can leave, the creature that killed Gemma's mother emerges. Pippa runs off and Gemma doesn't have time to find her so she runs off with Ann and Felicity. Pippa is left trapped underwater.

Summary

The girls listen to Gemma's mother for a short while. Soon they get bored and decide to take the magic back with them and play around with it for a while. While they're playing with it, they find out that magic is also evil. Gemma then learns a ghastly secret. Mary Dowd's friend Sarah is actually Circe and the two of them committed a horrible crime together. They killed the daughter of Mother Elena, the gypsy, Carolina. Gemma is so shocked. She also learns that Sarah never died in the fire. Gemma really wanted to find a photo of Mary and Sarah, and when she does, she is shocked to find a picture of her mother with the name Mary Dowd underneath it.

Summary

Upon traveling to the other realms, Gemma finds that her mom is alive and well. The girls figure out that they can achieve whatever their hearts desire. Gemma wishes for self-knowledge, Felicity for power, Pippa for true love and Ann for beauty. The girls continue to sneak out to the caves in the middle of the night and visit the realms. Gemma's mother warns them not to take the magic back into their own world. If this were to happen, when the magic leaves the realm the evil sorceress Circe will be able to find Gemma and kill her leaving the realms unguarded.

Resercher

Gemma's father is addicted to laudanum. It is known as opium tincture and it is an alcoholic herbal preparation. It contains 10% opium and 1% morphine. He is slowly becoming addicted to it. Gemma is sent to Spence Academy shortly after her mother dies. Throughout the book when Gemma speaks with her mother (in the realms), she believes her mother not being there is making the addiction worse for him.

Summary

As the girls read further and further into the diary of Mary Dowd they realize that the actual Order existed at Spence Academy and that Mary was a part of it along with her best friend Sarah and the original Headmistress Eugenia Spence, who all died in a fire at the school in the East Wing. Gemma tells her friends the truth about her powers and together they travel to the realms.

Summary

Gemma has a vision and is led to he caves that border the school grounds. While there she finds a diary written 25 years ago by a 16 year old girl named Mary Dowd. Mary also attended Spence Academy and also seemed to have he same visions as Gemma. Mary's friend Sarah Reese-Toome also suffered from these visions. Through the diary Gemma learns of a group called the Order and thinks that her visions are linked to them. Members of the Order possessed powers of prophecy and could also open doors between the human world and other realms. Gemma, Felicity, Pippa and Ann decide to create their own Order in the caves to escape from the dull lives that they are expected to lead.

Summary

With the death of her mother, and her father's growing addiction to laundaum, Gemma was sent to a finishing school in London. At first Gemma is the outcast of the school but then befriends the most popular in school because she finds her in a bad situation that would ruin her life. Gemma and Felicity soon form a strong friendship, and also befriend Gemma's roomate Ann and Felicity's best friend Pippa. Gemma is still tormented by the visions she has. She keeps thinking back to what Katrik told her at the market place. She must close her mind to these visions she's having or else something bad will happen

-Amanda Brandell

Summary

On Gemma Doyle's sixteenth birthday, her and her mother are walking through the streets of the Bombay Market shopping. Suddenly they are approached by a man and his younger brother. The man relays and unknown message to Gemma's mother and she begins to panic. Her mother demands that she returns home. Becoming angry at her mother's secrecy, Gemma runs away. Later on she has visions of her mother comitting suicide looking for her.

-Amanda Brandell

Setting - chapter 5 - robin

In chapter five the setting changes. Gemma is still in London but arrives at the boarding school she is going to be staying at.

"Your room is here." We're on the third floor, making our way down a long hall with many doors. Photographic portraits of Spence's various classes hang on the walls -- grainy faces even harder to see in teh dim light of a few gas lamps. Finally we come to a room at the end on the left. Mrs. Nightwing opens the door wide to reveal a cramped, musty- smelling room that could optimistcally be described as cheerless and realistically be called drab. There's a water stained desk, a chair, and a lamp. Iron beds hug the left and right walls. One bed looks lived in, with a neatly tucked quilt. The other, my bed fits in a tight nook under a steep eave that could probably break my skull if i sit up too quickly. It's a dormer room, one that juts out over the side of the building like an afterthought -- perfect for an afterthought of a girl, added to the roster at the last possible moment." page 43

This paragraph is Gemma describing her new room at the boarding school she is now going to attend called Spence. As you know she used to live in India and this strict boarding school is way different than her old home. I felt that this was a good paragraph that showed setting because this is going to be her new room for the rest of the book while she stays in London at the school.

A Great And Terrible Beauty (Resercher)

Pippa (a main character) has Epilepsy. Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that is charecterized by reaccurent random seizures. Pippa has a seizure in the book. Her mother tells her that she should hide and it and that no man would ever want her if he knew. She is told if she feels a seizure coming, she must say it is a headache and excuse herself to the bathroom.

Setting - robin pages 20-40

The next two chapters is two months later and Gemma gets her dream to go to London, England. But after she is there for a while with her brother Tom, she realizes that London isn't what she thought it would be.

"Tom helped me into the carriage and teh driver pulls away from the great, sprawling lady that is Victoria Station, clip- clopping toward the heart of London. The air is gloomy, alive with smoke from teh gaslights that line London;s streets. The foggy grayness makes it seem like suck, though it's only four o'clock in the afternoon. Anything could creep up behind you on such shadowy streets. I don't know why I think of tghis, but I do, and I immediately push the thought away." page 25. This is when Gemma first arrives in London and is leaving the train stsation and is goign to head to her new school. Her description doesn't make it seem like she likes London. It's dark and gloomy and to her a bit scary but does not want that thought in her mind.

England is the second main setting and will remain the main setting until she arrives to her boarding school.

setting - robin pages 1-20

In the first 20 pages the setting it introduces where Gemma lives. She lives in Bombay, India. The first two chapters take place in teh streets of the city where Gemma and her mother are shopping around for groceries and a cake for Gemma;s sixteenth birthday.

"Overhead, the clouds are thick and dark, giving warning that this is monsoon season, when the floods of rain could fall from the sky in a matter of minutes. In the dusty bazaar the turbaned men chatter and aquawk and bargain, lifting brightly colored silks towards us with brown and sunbaked hands. Everywhere there are carts lined with straw baskets offering every sort of ware and edible -- thin, choppery vases; wooden boxes carved into intricate flower designs; and mangos ripening the heat." page 2. This paragraph is Gemma describing the weather and the sales in India. She wants to move to London and does not like the little carts filled with flower pots and straw baskets.

Another paragraph that shows what Gemma does in India is "We used to go everywhere together, my mother and I -- visiting ancient temples, exploring local customs, watching Hindu festivals, staying up late to see the streets bloom with candlelight." page 3. This is showing the different things that Gemma and her mother did in India in the streets. There is so much to do but Gemma longs to go to London to visit her grandma and go to school there.

A Great and Terrible Beauty

Our book is A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

ROLES:

Amanda Brandell: Summarizer

Sophia Chronopoulos: Questioner

Zoe Edwards: Researcher

Jessye Pragen: Word Watcher

Robin Olzwelski: Scene Setter

SCHEDULE: